Clay pulled me to him, and we stood under the surprisingly warm water. “You make that sound as if that’s a negative thing for me.”
I looked up at Clay. “It’s probably good that you don’t. I have nothing, Clay. No family, very little money, a car with more needs than I can name, and two jobs that pay just enough to pay my bills and let me set aside a bit each month. You have everything opposite of that.”
Clay ran a hand down his face before he nodded a few times. “You’re right. I do. But you are about to have all of those things. You have my family now. My house is now our house. We’re going to get you a new vehicle just as soon as you let me.”
My eyes widened, and I frantically shook my head. “No, that’s not?—”
Clay stopped me with a hand on my mouth. “You will let me get you at least a gently used SUV or truck. We’ll need it in the winter. And you are going to be carrying our children. Theyare going to need to be driven around in a vehicle with safety features.”
“Hey,” I said and started laughing. “My car has some. It’s…”
“None of the modern-day features.”
I sighed. “True. I just feel like…I don’t know. Like I have nothing to offer to you.”
“You will get there. We’ll get you through college or trade school if that’s what you want. Or you can just stay home with the kids.” Clay leaned down and kissed me again. This time, he took it deeper but pulled away just when things started getting good.
“That was mean,” I said teasingly.
“Might have been, but it distracted you enough to get you to listen. Yes, I’m older. Fifteen years, to be exact. I had a set of parents growing up, and all of my brothers and I received an inheritance from our father’s parents when they passed. That’s how we started Silverback Securities. That’s how I bought this house. It’s not fair that you were given so little in life. I hate that for you. But I’m here now. I’m ready and willing to spoil you unlike you’ve ever been. But only if you let me. There is nothing wrong with an alpha taking care of his omega. Not a thing.” Clay sighed. “Just wait until you meet my parents. Ma hasn’t worked in forty-three years. Why? Because Dad takes care of her. And that’s all right. It doesn’t make her less. It won’t make you less.”
“I just…I’ve only ever had myself. Even when I was little, when I should have had the chance to be adopted because babies get adopted, I should have had someone. Only, I didn’t.” I took a deep breath. “So it’s difficult to suddenly have this amazing and sexy man telling me that he’ll take care of me.”
Clay grinned. “You think I’m sexy?” I rolled my eyes, and he laughed but pulled me under the spray completely, dunking my head in water. He moved out quickly and smiled down at me. “I was trying to lighten the mood. I understand you have alwaysbeen on your own. Now, you don’t have to be. I get it that it will take time. But we don’t necessarily have a whole lot of time to decide a few things.”
He wasn’t wrong. That was why I’d said I wanted him to claim me already. I didn’t want to go into a heat with my mate and still be unclaimed. It was probably stupid of me, but I wanted to remember the first time I had sex with Clay. He was sexy. But already I knew he was more than that. He was sweet and caring. He was easygoing, but I also knew he could be incredibly serious. Charlie had told me that I was lucky with my mate because whereas Mica was incredibly likeable, he didn’t have the serious side that he knew I needed. Mica would struggle to understand me. Clay, though, he would get it right away.
“All right,” I said. “I mean…you’re not wrong. I have a heat that might be coming. But maybe we’ll get lucky and it won’t. Who knows.”
“We’ll know soon enough.” Clay was suddenly serious. “It’s a lot, and I know it’s going to overwhelm you. That isn’t my intent. I just want to take care of you. My gorilla is thrilled with that prospect, and honestly, so am I. I might not have realized it, but I have been preparing for this for quite some time, and trust me when I say it’s truly no hardship.”
I didn’t know what else to do but nod. I wasn’t overly close with Charlie, but I knew him, and we were friendly. And he’d talked about his mate a few times. They weren’t hurting, let’s put it that way. Their security company did very well, and yeah, like Clay had mentioned, they got a head start in life from their grandparents. I wasn’t upset about that. I didn’t feel any sort of jealousy or anything. I was happy for them. All of them. But I was struggling with the idea of not having to struggle for every single thing in life anymore.
“Look,” Clay said, pulling me from my thoughts. “We’ll take it one day at a time. Right now, we’ll get clean and see if I canbring the sexual spark back. If you’ve changed your mind and are wanting to go back to waiting, I’m happy with that choice as well.”
I shook my head. “No waiting. And you don’t have to try to bring it back. It never left.” I reached out and wrapped my arms around Clay’s waist. I leaned in and started kissing across his chest, and he moaned. I didn’t know the logistics of how things could or would work, but I knew that there was a bench right behind me that looked like it would certainly hold both of us. Who said that claiming had to be done in a bed?
Chapter Nine
Clay
I wasn’t sure where we were headed and when we were going to get there, but I was more than happy to let Duncan lead as much as possible. He was in charge. If he wanted something, he could guide us. I was willing to do whatever it was that he wanted.
When he wrapped his arms around my waist and started trailing kisses across my chest, I let my head fall back and moaned at the amazing feeling. I liked sex. That wasn’t a secret. But this wasn’t just sex. This was Duncan—my mate. This was meaningful, and it was so much more intense than anything I’d ever experienced.
I carefully trailed my hands up his back and then threaded them into his wet hair. I didn’t hold him in place, simply held on to his hair and rubbed against his scalp. My body of course responded to my mate’s touch. We were naked, and in the shower. He was kissing my chest, and then I felt his hands trailing down my torso. When they wrapped around my cock,immediately my body went into overdrive, and I looked down at him.
“You’re doing just fine on your own with reigniting the mood.”
Duncan grinned. “I told you; it never left. We were sticky and it was going to get itchy.” Duncan stroked me a few more times and I sighed. “But as far as I’m concerned, there is a bench right there that looks like the perfect spot for us to claim one another.”
I stared at him a moment. “Did you not wish for me to knot you, then?” I asked. “I have zero doubt that I will be able to carry you back to the bedroom, but we’ll be wet, and stuck together for some time.”
Duncan’s hands froze on my cock and his eyes widened. “I…knots are real?”
I bit my cheek and nodded. “They most certainly are. I’ve never gotten a specific answer from Silver, and that’s all right with me, but they were stuck in bed long enough to take a nap.”
“Oh.” Duncan glanced at the bench again and I chuckled. “We can do the bench if you want, but we’re either going to be naked in the shower for the better part of an hour or in bed wet. Your choice.”
